Fascist Corporativism and the Myth of the New State: the Construction of the Totalitarian State in Italy
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Fascist Corporativism and the Myth of the New State: The Construction of the Totalitarian State in Italy By Zane Elward Submitted to Central European University Department of History In partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Masters of Arts Supervisor: Professor Constantin Iordachi Second Reader: Professor Julian Casanova CEU eTD Collection Budapest, Hungary 2015 Copyright in the text of this thesis rests with the Author. Copies by any process, either in full or part, may be made only in accordance with the instructions given by the Author and lodged in the Central European Library. Details may be obtained from the librarian. This page must form a part of any such copies made. Further copies made in accordance with such instructions may not be made without the written permission of the Author. CEU eTD Collection i Abstract This thesis approaches the corporative state in Fascist Italy as a case study of the attempt to construct a totalitarian state. In past analyses, corporativism has been interpreted as a façade for an authoritarian dictatorship, content with sharing power with the traditional economic elite and thus not representative of Fascist ideology or a totalitarian orientation. This, however, is a reductionist perspective, analyzing it through its failures instead of how it fit into the wider ambitions of the regime. The purpose of this thesis is to provide a more complete understanding of corporativism’s significance by employing the culturalist methodology of taking Fascist ideology seriously. This will be applied in the analysis of their rhetoric and policies, particularly the Carta del Lavoro and the legal framework of corporativism. This essay will argue that corporativism was shaped by Fascist ideology, that it served a purpose in the regime, and that it furthered and reinforced its totalitarian ambitions. Corporativism not only suppressed the workers’ movement, but was meant to marginalize the influence of the economic elite, subordinating them as organs of the state. Together, this was intended to grant Fascism an unchallengeable monopoly on politic power, simultaneously extending it into the economic sphere. Moreover, corporativism legitimized the regime and mobilized support; through promises of genuine social harmony and direct representation, corporativism formed the cornerstone of the myth of the new state, essential in forming consensus for the regime. Used as it was by the Fascists, corporativism fulfilled a role in the Fascist effort to construct a totalitarian state, and its examination provides a case study by analyzing the regimes’ totalitarian CEU eTD Collection intentions, how the regime made compromises yet strove to overcome them, Fascism’s desire to create a new man, and its compromises and the gradualist approach ultimately prevented Fascism from achieving its totalitarian ambitions. ii Table of Contents Introduction: Totalitarianism and the Corporative State ................................................................ 1 0.1: Framework and Methodology .............................................................................................. 8 Chapter 1: The Origins and Philosophy of Corporatism in Italy .................................................. 12 1.1: Revolutionary Syndicalism and the Syndicalist Alternative for the State .......................... 13 1.2: Corporatism and the Italian Nationalist Association ........................................................ 18 1.3: Mussolini’s Ideology, Revolutionary Syndicalism, and Nationalism ................................ 22 Concluding Remarks ................................................................................................................. 26 Chapter 2: Corporativism and the Establishment of the Fascist Dictatorship .............................. 28 2.1: The Dominant Positions within Fascism on Corporativism .............................................. 29 2.2: From Coalition Government to Dictatorship .................................................................... 34 2.3: Integral Syndicalism and the Legge Sindacale .................................................................. 37 Concluding Remarks ................................................................................................................. 41 Chapter 3: The Formation of the Corporative State...................................................................... 43 3.1: The Carta del Lavoro: Propaganda or Program? ............................................................ 45 3.2: The Gradual Establishment of Corporativism ................................................................... 51 3.3: The PNF and Intersyndical Committees ............................................................................ 55 Concluding Remarks ................................................................................................................. 58 Chapter 4: The Significance of the Carta del Lavoro and Corporativism .................................... 61 4.1: Cartelization and Compartmentalization: Marginalizing the Economic Elite .................. 63 4.2: Forced Unity and Creating the “Uomo Fascista” ............................................................ 69 4.3: The Myth of the New State: Mobilizing Support for the Regime ....................................... 75 Concluding Remarks ................................................................................................................. 79 Conclusion: Fascist Corporativism: Toward a Totalitarian State ................................................. 81 Appendix ....................................................................................................................................... 87 Bibliography ................................................................................................................................. 94 CEU eTD Collection iii CEU eTD Collection iv Introduction Totalitarianism and the Corporative State Italian Fascists in the 1920s and 1930s declared at every opportunity that they had constructed a new, totalitarian state, which, according to il Duce, Benito Mussolini, incorporated and directed all activities within society. Corporativism – the Fascist form of corporatism, a system in which society is structured into economic organizations from which representatives of workers and employers are arranged into corporations to negotiate legislation affecting all socioeconomic matters – was to be at the center of this new state, championed as the “Third Way” between liberal democracy and socialism. The Fascists promised this system would bring national unity, social justice, direct political representation, and economic development. In reality, none of these objectives would be achieved and the corporative state remained incomplete. Nevertheless, steps were taken toward its creation, and while it was never representative nor provided the promised social harmony, it was shaped by Fascist ideology and represented a part of the effort to construct a totalitarian state. Much like the corporative state, it is accepted by all scholars of Fascist Italy that a fully developed totalitarian regime never emerged.1 For decades following the collapse of Fascism, this led many to exclude Fascist Italy from the classification of totalitarian, though this is due to the concentration on totalitarianism as a structure of the total state, not as a type of ideology and CEU eTD Collection 1 Alexander J. De Grand, Italian Fascism: Its Origins & Development, 3rd ed. (Lincoln; London: University of Nebraska Press, 2000), 169–170; Stanley G. Payne, A History of Fascism, 1914-1945 (Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1995), 122; David D. Roberts, The Totalitarian Experiment in Twentieth-Century Europe: Understanding the Poverty of Great Politics (New York; London: Routledge, 2006), 335. 1 movement. The concept of the totalitarian state is most often applied to the repressive regimes of Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union under Stalin. In comparison, Fascist Italy, given its relatively low amount of terror and compromises, falls short. Yet the aim and ideology of the Fascists, with their intention to direct every realm of existence within a society through the new “total” state they sought to create, is itself totalitarian. According to preeminent Fascist historian Emilio Gentile, totalitarianism when applied in such a way can best be understood not as a regime which can be fully developed, but rather as an ongoing process; an experiment. It is a revolutionary movement with the aim to obtain a monopoly of power in order to create a new, single-party state that seeks to encompass and direct all aspects of society, penetrating and subordinating it to its ideology. The ideology is institutionalized through rituals, and thus takes the form of a political religion which is exclusivist, allowing no other alternative perspectives, and desires to transform society so as to create a new man. In its efforts to achieve this goal, the movement will utilize terror (physical or psychological), “capillary organizations” and a revolutionary party which infiltrates the masses for indoctrination, and mass mobilization through myths, the sacralization of politics and the cult of the leader.2 This definition thus puts an emphasis on totalitarianism as a political religion and as an ideology of the state, which is to be a permanent entity forever guiding the masses. In this sense, Fascism must be understood as a totalitarian movement, as according to the